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The annual Lyrid meteor shower will hit its peak this weekend and
promises to put on an eye-catching display. So much so, NASA is
pulling out all the stops.

NASA scientists plan to track the
Lyrid meteor shower using a network of all-sky cameras on
Earth, as well as from a student-launched balloon in California.
Meanwhile, an astronaut on the International Space Station will
attempt to photograph the meteors from space.

All of the work is timed for the peak of the Lyrids display of
" shooting
stars," which occurs late tomorrow night and early Sunday
(April 21 and 22). The meteors will appear to emanate from the
constellation Lyra, which will appear in the northeastern sky at
midnight local time, between the two days. The best time to see
them is in the hours before dawn.

"I'm eager to see if we can get observations on the ground that
we can correlate with the space station, then see what this
balloon payload will get for us," NASA meteor shower expert Bill
Cooke told SPACE.com. "It's kind of an exciting time for us, and
it's not even a major meteor shower." [ Gallery:
Sky Maps for 2012 Lyrid Meteor Shower ]

Cooke heads NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the agency's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He expects the
Lyrids to offer skywatchers between 15 and 20 meteors per hour
for observers under the best viewing conditions (clear weather
and far from city lights). Dark skies are vital to get the best
view of all
meteor showers.

Promising Lyrid display

The Lyrid meteor shower is typically a faint celestial light
show, but what makes this year's display special is the fact that
the moon will be in its "new" phase, meaning the side facing
Earth won't be illuminated and interfere with the Lyrids.

"The moon messes a lot of stuff," Cooke said. "I like the moon …
but it can keep us from getting work done."

And Cooke is hoping for a good showing from the
2012 Lyrid meteor shower, which is the second notable meteor
display of the year. It follows the Quadrantid meteor shower in
early January and kicks off what Cooke calls "meteor shower
season," since the year's nighttime fireworks displays will only
pick up from here.

"So this is kind of the return of the nighttime meteor shower for
the year," Cooke said. "Meteor showers are returning to us."

Lyrids from space and balloon

By coincidence, the International Space Station will be flying on
a path that will give its six-man crew prime seats to the Lyrid
meteor shower this weekend. To take advantage of the cosmic
line-up, one crew member — NASA astronaut Don Pettit — will
attempt to snap photos of the Lyrids from space.

Pettit is already an accomplished space photographer and Cooke
hopes that, by tracking the time of any meteors the astronaut
sees, they can be matched to meteors seen from ground cameras.

"This is the first time we've tried to organize a ground campaign
to look for meteors at the same time an astronaut in space is
looking for meteors," Cooke said.

Then there's the research balloon.

NASA is working with astronomer Tony Phillips, who runs the
skywatching website
Spaceweather.com, and is leading a group of high school and
middle school students in Bishop, Calif., in a project to launch
a helium weather balloon into the stratosphere to try and
photograph Lyrid meteors. Phillips also works with the
Science@NASA website.

The weather balloon will carry a low-cost meteor camera, an
experimental NASA design making its first test flight, Cooke
said.

"We're going to see if we can see Lyrids from 100,000 feet,"
Cooke added.

Humans have been observing the Lyrid meteor shower for more than
2,600 years, NASA scientists said. The display is created when
Earth passes through a stream of dust and debris left over from
comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), which follows a 415-year orbit around
the sun. [ Video:
Comet Thatcher's Lyrid Meteors ]

While the Lyrid meteor shower appears to radiate outward from the
constellation Lyra (hence its name), looking straight at the
constellation isn't a good idea.

"The last thing you want to do is look at Lyra, which is the
direction of the radiant, because the meteors in that direction
have very short tails and will appear as a dot to you," Cooke
advised. "The best thing to do with any meteor shower is to go
out there, lie on your back and look straight up."

Don't expect to see a sky filled with shooting stars, either,
Cooke warned. A few meteors per hour is what the average
skywatcher should expect, he said.

Lyrid meteor skywatchers with good weather should venture outside
in the late-night hours Saturday or early Sunday, preferably
after midnight to catch the sky show around its peak, which
occurs at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT). You should allow up to 40
minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness.

A reclining folding chair, blanket and good company can help
enhance your Lyrid observing experience too.

Cooke will also host a "NASA Up All Night" webchat to discuss the
Lyrids in real-time, offering a chance for those with rainy skies
to see the meteor shower remotely. You can join the Lyrid meteor
shower webchat tomorrow between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. EDT (0300 and
0900 GMT) here: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/lyrids2012_chat.html

And if you don't see many Lyrid meteors in the night sky, don't
be discouraged. There are plenty other amazing skywatching sights
in April's evening sky.

"You have Venus over in the west blazing brilliantly, and then we
have Mars over in the East, and then Saturn. If you stay up late,
at sunrise there's Mercury, but it tends to be really hard for
people to spot," Cooke said. "If the weather is favorable, it
certainly wouldn't be a bad night to do a little stargazing."

If you snap an amazing photo of the Lyrid meteor shower or other
skywatching target and you'd like to share it for a possible
story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq
Malik at tmalik@space.com.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on
Twitter@tariqjmalik.
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